Here are a couple recipes for fun. hope you have fun fiding the ingredients. I'll try to stop by periodically to add a couple more.

Terrapin Put the terrapin in boiling water; when perfectly lifeless take out and remove tha outer skin and nails. Boil in salted water until perfectly tender. Then remove shells, sandbag and gall. Cut the meat in smalll pieces and put in a saucepan(save all the juices)with butter, pepper(red and black) salt and the hard boiled yolk of an egg rubbed smooth. Let it boil up, stir in 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of cream and a few bread crumbs and serve on toast.

Frog on toast The hindquarters or saddle of the frog is used for food. After dressing, let lie in cold water until wanted. When ready to cook, first roll in flour, then dip in beaten egg, then in rolled crackers and fry six or eight minutes in hot lard. Cut Large square slices of buttered toast across diagonally, arrange them down the middle of a large dish with a saddle on each piece, and decorate each side of the dish with sliced lemons and parsley.

Cherry Catsup 1 pint of cherry juice 3/4 pound of sugar. 1 teaspoonful of ground cinnamon 1 teaspoonful of ground cloves A dash of Cayenne pepper. Boil to a thick syrup and bottle. A nice way of using up the surplus juice left after canning cherries.

Hope you enjoy these. Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), May 09, 2000

Answers

With the first 2 recipes one could loose weight !

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), May 09, 2000.

Maybe the cherry catsup. I think I'll file the other two right next to the recipe for fried pig's ears. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 09, 2000.

Gerbil fried pig ear and ginger with some bokchoy over rice is verry good. Shaun

-- shaun cornish (shaun-terri@juno.com), May 09, 2000.

Erp.

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 09, 2000.

LOL!! Shall I send in the recipe for jellied moose nose?!? (It's delicious!!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 09, 2000.

Frog legs are good. Mother used to fry them when I was a kid. You have to cut the tendons first though or they will literally jump out of the frying pan. You can still get them at some of the pricier restuarants here in the south. They are considered a delicacy.

Daddy used to us a from gig to catch them at night. The gig he used was a long pole with a trap type thing on the end of it. You lunge at the frog with it and the trap snaps shut around the frog. You shine a flashlight along the shallows and look for glowing eyes. You have to be careful, though, because water mocassin's eyes look the same in the light, and they are a real handful to get back out of the gig unless you have a .22 and a good, long bladed, sharp knife.

I don't believe that I could ever bring myself to put any living thing in boiling water though. People here don't eat terrapins, but sometimes mud or snapping turtles are still cooked up. They used to be common food before the age of giant conglomerate meat producers.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 09, 2000.

No thanks! I was shocked to see frog's legs on sale at Easter-time at our local small town grocery store! Yep, I saw them right there in the frozen food section. Are they some kind of ethnic delicacy?

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 09, 2000.

No offense in any way intended re: my above post!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 09, 2000.

Jean, you made me laugh! Frogs legs actually are good! For that matter, rocky mountain oysters are, too, if you don't think about what you are eating, and if they are cooked right...skinned, breaded and fried. Out here in the west, they are pretty common. Took this city girl a while to try them at one of the "oyster frys" that happen a few times a year in my husband's home town, let me tell you. I wasn't going to let them think I was too stuck up to try them, so I did. Not bad. Don't think I will be cookin' any real soon, though! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), May 09, 2000.

Green, I wouldn't survive if dinner hopped out of the pan at me. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 09, 2000.

Gerbil, I am LOL! That was funny!!!

-- Thanks (roflm@o.com), May 09, 2000.

My, my - how times have changed! Here's an excerpt from the preface of my favorite family hand-me-down cookbook circa 1944:

"As this edition goes to press our country is still at war. Rationing is in force and shortages of many foods have developed. In a fine spirit of patriotism American homemakers have adapted themselves to the changes. Their minds are open to ne ideas; foods they have never served before are now appearing on their tables..."

It goes on to list some recipes for wartime menus - my favorite: " if you can not obtain a Sirloin steak, make do with an appetite teasing T-bone steak, family style..."

Gee, I guess I COULD settle for a T-bone...

I've eaten snapper and also frog legs (taste like chicken, don't they?!), but I won't cook anything that's trying to get away from me either. Speaking of which - you ought to see them kick when you clean them and then toss them into salt water! Sorry, sick humor!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 09, 2000.

Yes, Polly, times certainly have changed the food market and prices. I have a recipe for "City Chicken" that very carefully tells you how to make pork taste like chicken. It is left from the days when pork actually WAS cheaper than chicken, and frying chicken was a more or less seasonal thimg.

Well Jean, I guess frog's legs are ethnic. The only folks I know that eat them are white. Blacks here generally don't have any foods that I could consider "ethnic". They seem to be eating pretty much what whites do. The Mexicans have a whole different set of recipes. That is just about all the ethnicity we have here. Anyway, frog legs used to be eaten by whites and blacks alike in more or less the same quantities. Then the bullfrogs became rather rare for some reason. It wasn't overhunting. Anyhow, I think the legs restuarants sell mostly come from overseas someplace.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 10, 2000.

I wasn't really thinking color, by any means. I'm quite a mix of ethnicity myself! Maybe I should have said tradition - or regional specialty. Now I'm just curious, you know! BTW, I found my first wild asparagus the other day. Around here this time of year, you can see lots of people searching up & down the roadsides for it. I didn't find much and ate it raw on the spot- so delicious!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 10, 2000.

We had our first asparagus from the garden yesterday -- yum!! But re: the frog legs -- I believe there are people in this country who have frog farms, though they may also be importing some. Can't imagine that there is really THAT much of a market for them, though!! LOL!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 10, 2000.

Here are a couple more.The first one is kinda neat because it uses so many unusual things.

Mixed Chow-Chow

Take radish pods, green peppers, long and round, green grapes, Nasturtium seeds, green peaches, green cherries, green string beans, button onions, Cauliflower, picked apart, and very small cucumbers. Pour over them a hot brine and let stand four days, then remove from brine to drain. Make either the mustard pickle or the spiced vinegar in sufficient quantity to cover the pickles. Heat boiling hot and pour over them. Keep covered from the air, but it is not necessary to seal.

Wedding Fruit Cake 3 pounds of butter, beaten to a cream. 3 pounds of sugar, added to this and beaten with the hand till light. 1/2 pint of rose water 24 eggs well beaten, and 4 pounds of flour sifted with 1/2 teaspoonful of soda and 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar. 1/2 pound of blanched almonds. 2 nutmegs grated 3 pounds of raisins 1/4ounce of cloves 1 pound of figs, chopped. 1/2 ounce of mace. 2 pounds of currants 1/2 ounce of cinnamon. 1 pound of citron, sliced. dredge fruit with flour and add last of all. This recipe will make three or four large or mediumsized loaves of cake. Bake slowly for four hours. This cake will serve fifty or more persons.

Enjoy!

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), May 10, 2000.

What exactly is Nasturtium seeds? I've never heard of them..

Jim

-- Jim Tanner (tanner_jim@hotmail.com), May 10, 2000.

Jim, nasturtiums are a flower, usually grown ornamentally, but also edible in different ways. I've heard of the buds being pickled as a caper substitute, and the young leaves being used in salads, but this is the first I've heard of a use for the seeds.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 10, 2000.

Green, we used to gig frogs when I was a kid. Thanks for bringing back an interesting memory. Frogs Legs (can't remember the French name now) are quite a delicacy in French restaurants.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 10, 2000.

yup I remember giging frogs hipwaders miners light and a frog gig sloshing through the boones. Shaun

-- shaun cornish (shaun-terri@juno.com), May 10, 2000.

i didn't even understand what the animal in the first recipe was! as you can tell i grew up in the city.

-- amber (ambrosia75@wa.freei.net), May 10, 2000.

My oldier brothers & I use to frog hunt. We used a triple hook with a piece of red material on the hook that was on a cane pole & put the red material in front of the frog he would jump at the red material & you hooked him! If we had a problem getting him up on the bank my brothers held on to my ankles slid me down the bank where I grabbed the frog & they pulled me back up by my ankles! I use to be their hunting dog also --I pointed, & retreived! AND PEOPLE WOMDER WHY I'M A VEGETARAIN! ha! If I thought I would have lived this long (with the brothers I had) I would have taken better care of my self! ha! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), May 10, 2000.

Amber, around here a terrpain is a box turtle, or in other words, a little turtle that lives on dry land. They eat plants and are especially fond of tomatoes and cantaloupes. They are about 6" across when fully grown. There used to be a lot of recipes for them, or for cooking other meats to taste like them.

As for ethnicity instead of color, most folks here don't have a clue as to what ethnic group/groups they are decended from. Half of them don't know what their grandparents' first names were. They just don't pay any attention. As Daddy said, "Ignorance is bliss, and these people here are BLISTERED." They don't know, and frankly don't care. Beats me.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 11, 2000.

Box turtles!!!! We love box turtles - as pets!!! Don't tell anyone, but sometimes we pick one up from along the roadside (alive) for a pet. Our dog still has a scar on his nose from one that nipped him. They always seem to escape from us eventually, though. Eat one? Never! I thought terrapin were maybe snapping turtles...

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 11, 2000.

The revenge of the box turtle?

"Box turtle are fond of slugs, earthworms, wild strawberries and mushrooms poisonous to humans - which habit has killed many a human who has eaten their flesh." - From National Audubon society Field guide to niorthAmerican reptiles & Amphibians," Authors - Behler & King, Publisher Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1979.

I have never eaten box turtles, but have eaten Snappers and Frog Legs, enjoy them both. I however, will never reach my hand underwater, up a hole to tickle for a snapper, grabbing hold of the wrong end of a snapper or a muskrat is not for me. However if I find one crossing the road or the pasture field he's dinner.

30 some years ago, in Rockhall Maryland (on the Bay) there was a hardware store that at night let go two large snapping turtles loose two large snapping turtles in the store to act as guard dogs. Being quite I guess that the turtle would sneak up on the would be thief and take a chunk out of his leg.

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), May 12, 2000.